Love Me Forever

Ahhhhhhh Autumnal Sunshine

Today I traveled to Milwaukee to go to a luncheon for an organization that is working hard to improve schools in Milwaukee. They work across all sectors -- choice, charter, public -- and they're extremely passionate about their work. I got to see some of my Milwaukee friends, be in the city, celebrate the success of this organization's first four years, and be re-energized about the work ahead.

When the luncheon finished, before getting back in my car, I took the liberty of taking a walk in the sunshine. Today was an absolutely gorgeous day, and while out on my walk, I came across some couches outside a hotel and decided to just sit a bit and bask in the sunshine. The music wafting out of the hotel was this song:

Love me (love me)
Love me forever (love me forever)
Take me (take me)
Make me your own

Promise (promise)
Promise you'll never (promise you'll never)
Leave me (leave me)
Lost and alone

Well y'all know he left me, and I've been feeling lost and alone, but something else happened today (later in the day) that was pretty great. I went to see my acupuncturist, and told her how I was feeling and what was going on with me. She listened, as usual, and then helped me reframe in a way that was super helpful. She said I don't have to stop loving my New Englander in order to "move on." This was a huge relief in and of itself, because I've tried, and I'm here to tell you, I cannot do it. I love him. I can't change that.

But she went even further, suggesting that staying in that love will help me connect with someone else. Now that kinda blows my mind, but tonight, as I imagine my lover, he is an amalgam of my New Englander and some other strong-armed man who can love me without reservation, the way I was able to love the man who, it seems, decided he loved mountains as much as he loved me:

Kiss me (kiss me)
Strongly and sweetly (strongly and sweetly)
Tell me (tell me)
You will be true

Love me (love me)
Love me completely (love me completely)
Now and forever
As I love you

(Love me)
(Love me forever)
(Take me)
(Make me your own)

Promise (promise)
Promise you'll never (promise you'll never)
Le-ee-eave me (leave me)
Lost and alone

I hope I can believe the next man who promises me that. I didn't think the last one would ever leave me lost and alone, and yet that is, in part, where I find myself...